Industrial and consumer stocks lead rebound in US indexes

Monday, September 10, 2018

By MARLEY JAY, AP Markets Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Monday morning as major stock indexes rebound from the previous week's losses. Industrial and retail stocks are up while technology companies are little changed. CBS falling after it announced the departure of longtime CEO Les Moonves.

Apple fell after saying a new round of bigger U.S. tariffs could push it to raise prices. Indexes in Asia mostly fell as investors fretted over the possibility of new and bigger U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.

ON THE REBOUND: Industrial and consumer-focused companies rose. 3M gained 1.2 percent to $215.19 and General Electric gained 1.5 percent to $12.58. Home Depot advanced 1.6 percent to $204.93. Nike rose 2.4 percent to $82.25. The stock slumped 3 percent Aug. 31 as investors worried about potential backlash to an advertising campaign featuring former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Nike's stock has now regained all the ground it lost since then.

STILL LAGGING: Technology companies were little changed. The S&P 500 technology index fell 2.9 percent last week, its largest loss in one week since March. On Monday Chipmaker Broadcom rose 2 percent to $237.12, but Apple fell 1.5 percent to $217.98 after it said it could be affected by the $200 billion in proposed tariffs. The company said it might respond by raising prices on some of its products, including the Apple Watch and the Mac mini.

CBS SETTLEMENT: Media company CBS said CEO Les Moonves is stepping down after six more women accused him of sexual misconduct as well as retaliation if they resisted him. Moonves denied the charges in a pair of statements, although he said he had consensual relations with three of the women.

CBS fell 3.3 percent to $54.24.

As part of a larger deal, CBS wrapped up litigation with its parent company, National Amusements. CBS said it won't issue a special stock dividend that would have weakened National Amusements' control of CBS, and the company won't try to merge CBS with Viacom.

TOUGH TO SAY GOODBYE: Alibaba fell 2.2 percent to $158.73 after the e-commerce company said company founder Jack Ma will step down as chairman in September 2019. The next chairman will be Daniel Zhang. Zhang replaced Ma as CEO in 2013.

U.S.-CHINA TRADE: The Trump administration could soon announce tariffs on $200 billion in goods imported from China, and on Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to put taxes on another $267 billion in goods. That would cover essentially all products imported from China.

The U.S. has already imposed tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese products, for which Beijing has retaliated with an equal amount of import taxes on U.S. goods.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tumbled 1.3 percent. It's down almost 20 percent from its peak early this year, close to the entering what Wall Street calls a "bear market," or a particularly steep decline.

OVERSEAS: France's CAC 40 jumped 0.7 percent and the German 0.4 percent following reports the European Union and Britain might soon reach a deal for Britain's departure from the European Union. The pound strengthened and Britain's FTSE 100 gained 0.1 percent.

CONTRACTOR DEAL: Engility Holdings edged up 0.7 percent to $36.50 after SAIC agreed to buy it for $2.5 billion in stock. Engility provides engineering services, training and other services to the U.S. government, and SAIC is another major government contractor. Its stock lost 7.3 percent to $83.26.

BUYING, NOT RENTING: United Rentals climbed 3.7 percent to $157.92 up after saying it will buy competitor BlueLine for $2.1 billion.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude added 0.9 percent to $68.33 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 1.2 percent to $77.78 a barrel in London.

BONDS: Bond prices were little changed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note remained at 2.94 percent.

CURRENCIES: The dollar rose to 111.11 yen from 111.06 yen. The euro rose to $1.1602 from $1.1566